I don’t know if the photograph of the painting gives the work too much credit or doesn’t do it justice. The colors shift with the lighting, with the levelness of the painting. So recently worked on, it won’t lay flat. The wave has waves, everything is warped anyway. People will see what they want to see. Is it a curvaceous cavern or the wistful ocean? Whatever it is, it is a birthday present for my dad.
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Ken’s Guide to the Bible by Ken Smith
Summary: Smith parses down the bible, The Old Testament, The New Testament and some Gospels and other such ancillary texts, showing the bible’s pastiche nature. It is a book that points out (as it says on its cover) the violence, sex, absurdity and weirdness that Christians so heavily rely on and refer to when wanting to answer moral questions… wait, what?
Review: Perfect for the beginner Atheist. This is a book that you can use against your Christian friends in the schoolyard when they quote Corinthians, you can quote right back at them and laugh! I haven’t read the bible, so I was surprised at all the juicy details that they just had to have in there.
Rating: 8 first born sons dead for their father’s sins
Random Sample: “God has a wrestling match with Jacob and loses. To honor the occasion, God changes Jacob’s name to ‘Israel.’ –Genesis 32:24-30”
Wine-pairing: After analyzing a text that is fiction posing as fact, how about a switch? The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown pairs up amazing art artifacts and scientific stories to weave together a very realistic Church conspiracy… yes, the Holy Grail. Is it a chalice?
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The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
Summary: Vowell’s series of essays relating to patriotism, history and colonialism is fascinating and makes me feel like I am not alone in the slight unease of being proud to be a United-Statesian. The prose is personal and contemporary. It feels like you’re speaking to a friend who just happens to be a nerdy history author.
Review: Please read this book. Especially, if you’re not into politics. It is smart without being stuffy and intellectual. It is funny, sweet, ironic and easy to read through. Take it apart, read it in its components, out of order, upside down. Books like this are fun to read at lunch when you want fifteen minutes of insight.
Rating: 9 sentences of the Gettysburg Address that you recited in the second grade
Random Sample: “From the Spanish exploration of Aztec cocoa and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, and down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle’s Starbucks’s, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention , and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much.”
Wine-pairing: The Quiet American. Graham Greene’s allegory to United States/British influence on Vietnam.
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Lately, I have been scoping out locations for some of my paintings. I am excited about people seeing the collection of paintings I have been working on. It’s called “Darwin.” I enjoy showing the beauty in nature, the sense we’re all connected by the Earth, love and sadness. I am also looking forward to feedback. What pieces would you think I need to make this collection more adhesive to the theme?
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Project Amalgam: I asked friends what I should paint tonight and the first responses were skull, lemur, daisy and octopodes. So, here we are. A big shout out to those nice people who contributed to my super artistic moments, painting on a wooden easel, with a wooden palate, with new paintbrushes looking through a paned window out onto the porch and Portage Bay as the sun set.
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The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Summary: Dawkins makes the textbook for atheists, covering the distinction between aitheist, pantheist, deist and theist. Dawkins gives the definition of a dualist. He describes evolution and religion’s marginal role in the history of life. He describes reigion as smoething reinforced by positive psychology, religion, a virus exploiting love. At the end of the book, he gives the readers all the good reasons to love science and appreciate the notion that there is no god.
Review: Excellent book. It never stops making sense. I hold this book to its reputation. It really is the atheist’s first book. If you have thought about not believing in the supernatural and whatnot, it is a perfect welcome into the realm of sanity and the awe of science. It begs the question “are there limits of human understanding?”
Rating: 9 useless eye-halves (read the book to get this reference)
Favorite part: “Why is god considered an explanation for anything? Its not—it’s a failure to explain, a shruge of the shoulders, an ‘I dunno’ dressed up in spirituality and ritual.” –Jerry Coyne, p.161
“That it will never come again
is what makes life so sweet.” –Emily DickensonWine-pairing: The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. She makes the world sound wonderful and writing about it part of the process to capture the awe in the life all around us, the beauty in nature, pensive moments and the importance of creativity.
